The above named figure is a Thaumatrope, as much as the one we are
about to describe, although the term Phantasmascope is generally
applied to the latter instrument; which consists of a disc of darkened
tin-plate, with a slit or narrow opening in it, about two inches in
length. It is fixed upon a stand, and the slit placed upwards, so that
it may easily be looked through. Another disc of pasteboard, about a
foot in diameter, is now prepared and fixed on a similar stand, but
with this difference, that it is made to revolve round an axis in the
center. On this pasteboard disc, paint in colors a number of frogs in
relative and progressive positions of leaping; make between each figure
a slit of about a quarter of an inch deep: and when this second disc
is made to revolve at a foot distance behind the first, and the eye is
placed near the slit, the whole of the figures, instead of appearing
to revolve with the disc, will all appear in the attitudes of leaping
up and down, increasing in agility as the velocity of the motion is
increased. It is necessary, when trying the effect of this instrument,
to stand before a looking-glass, and to present the painted face of the
machine toward the glass.
A very great number of figures may be prepared to produce similar
effects--horses with riders in various attitudes of leaping, toads
crawling, snakes twisting and writhing, faces laughing and crying,
men dancing, jugglers throwing up balls, etc.; all of which, by the
peculiar arrangement above detailed, will seem to be in motion. A
little ingenuity displayed in the construction and painting of the
figures upon the pasteboard disc will afford a great fund of amusement.